Variable tension recoil means for garment pressing machines



INVENTOR.

N. MONSARRAT VARIABLE TENSION RECOIL MEANS FOR GARMENT PRESSING MACHINES 3Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 23, 1944 m QM N. MONSARRAT VARIABLE TENSION RECOIL MEANS FOR GARMENT'PREssINeMAcHINEs April 23, 1946.

Filed June 23, 1944 s Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. Mefian Mm magma,

p 94 i N. MONSARRAT 2,3983% VARIABLE TENSION RE IGOIL MEANS FOR GARMENT PRESSING MACHINES Filed June 25, 1944 s Sheets- Sheet 3 Patented Apr. 23, 1946 assent,

VARIABLE TENSION RECOIL MEANS FOR GARMENT PRESSING MACHINES Nicholas Monsarrat, Seekonk, Mass; assignor to Pantex Pressing Machine, Inc., Central-Falls, R. 1., a corporation of Delaware Application June 23, 1944i, Serial No.'541,76'7

11 Claims.

My invention relates to improvements in vari- I able tension recoil means for garment pressing machines.

While I am aware that others have provided recoil springs for garment presses, they have been of two general types. It has been realized that it has been desirable to substantially counterbalance or equilibrate the weight of the pressing head and the weight added thereto by its actuating means and certain types of recoil springs have therefore been built with this end in view, thereby providing a press in which most of the work of opening has to be done by the operator. However, the desirability'of having a snap opening press has also been realized and for this purpose presses have been constructed with recoil springs of substantial intensity to spring the press open on the mere release of the locking means.

An object of my invention is to construct a recoil spring mechanism for a pressing head which will accomplish both these desired results, namely to function as a counterbalance or equilibrator dur ing the major portions of the opening and closing.

strokes and yet which will store up enough'ene'rgy to permit the press'to spring open on release of weight on the manual actuating means or on the unlocking of the latching means.

An object of my invention broadly, therefore, is-to provide means to vary the'effective tension exerted by the recoil spring means in a predetermined manner throughout the closing and opening strokes of the pressing head preferably to provide the two aforementioned functions automatically during the normal operation of the press.

My invention further relates" to the specific means I provide for this purpose which includes means to automatically vary the effective leverage exerted by said spring means to varythe efiective tension exerted by said spring means to achieve the aforementioned results.

A further object of my invention is to provide a mechanism which will take up backlash in the more heavily stressed members in the actuating means for the pressing head.

A desirable feature of manually operated presses is that it is possible to get a betterpress on a garment being pressed by the so-called patting method, namely by raising the head a' slight amount and rapidly lowering it successively to shape up the garment being pressed. As myimproved press tends to open sharply with a snap action it is obvious that it may function very easily to pat or fan the garment in a rapid manner. I

A further object of my invention is to provide a device which substantially eliminates friction at the point of operative attachment of the recoil spring to the pressing lever. 7

A further object of my invention is'to provide a novel type of structurewhich permits any desired predetermined variation in the tensionexerted by the recoil spring. l

A further object of my invention isto provide a structurein which the recoil spring may beattached to the foot lever to counterbalance its action as well as the action of the movable pressing member.

Further features of my invention relatejto improvements in the structure ofv the parts I preferably employ, in general covering a novel combination of standard; simple, well-known ready.

available parts. V I

These andisuch other objects of my invention as may hereinafter appear will be best understood from a descriptioniof the embodiments thereof such as are shown in the accompanying drawings. I

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a, diagrammatic'end elevation 'of' a garment pressing machine constructed in.v accordance with my inventionshowingthe position of the parts thereof whenthe press is'inbpen position.

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic end-elevation o'fa garment pressing machine constructed in .ac-

cordance with my invention showing the position.

of the parts thereof when thelgpress' is in closed position. I v

.Fig. 3 is a plan view ofthe garment pressing machine shown in Figs. 1Zand2 in closed position.

Fig. 4 is a rear elevationof the garment pressing machine shown in Figs. '1-'-3 in closed position.

Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic enfd elevation similar to Fig. 1 illustrating a different embodiment of my invention employing a different form 'of tension varying means.

Fig. G'is a diagrammatic end elevation similar to Fig. 2 illustrating the embodiment of my invention shown in Fig. 5,.

Figs. .7, 8 and 9 are diagrammatic representations of the spring-lever arm systems each witha graph of the relative movement'of the spring and the lever arm, Fig. 7 illustrating'the' features of prior art types of presses, Fig. 8 illustrating such features of the preferred embodiment of 7 my invention shown in Figs, 1-4 and Fig. 9 being illustrative of such features 'of themodifiedfform of my invention shown in'Figs 5 and 6.

In the drawings, wherein like characters of reference generally indicate like parts throughout,

l0 and It generally indicate pressing machines constructed in accordance with my invention. Said machine contains the usual frame I2 having a stationary buck l4 rigidly mounted thereon and a pressing lever l6 pivotally mounted as at is on said frame 12. While my invention may be employed with a power press, it is particularly adapted for use with a manually operated press such as a foot pressshown. For this purpose a foot pedal 20 is pivotally mounted-as at '22 on said frame. I have shown in the drawings a standard type of actuating means comprising two toggles. The first toggle includes a weighted lever 24 pivotally mounted on said frame as at 26 and the link 28 pivotally connected to the rear end of said lever. Another link 30 joins th front end of the foot pedal 20 to the front end of the lever 24 as at 32. The second toggle comprises the two links 34 and 36, the lower link 34 being pivotally mounted on the pivot pin 22 of the foot pedal 20 and having its upper end pivotally connected to the upper link 36 by the pin 38. The upper end of the upper link 38 is pivotally connected to the work arm of the pressing lever l6 by the pivot pin 46 and therear end of the link 28 of the first toggle is'pivotally connected to the lower link 34 of the second toggle by the pivot pin 42. The pressing lever l6 has a pressing head 44 rigidly mounted on the front end thereof. It is thus obvious that with the construction shown that when the foot pedal 20 is pushed downward by the foot that the two toggles will function in a standard manner to pivot the pressing lever H; to move the pressing head 44 from the open position shown in Fig. 1 to the closed position shown in Fig. 2.

So far I have merely described the essential working parts of a standard garment pressing machine such as is shown in Figs. 1-6. My invention includes the provision of recoil spring groups of drawings; namely, Figs. 1-4 and -6'is constructed as follows:

The recoil spring means 48 preferably "cornprises a leaf spring having a plurality'of leaves 50 superimposed on each other and suitably by said spring means, which, operating on a lever of the first class such as a pressing lever I6 comprises the distance between the pivot point H! of the lever and the point of contact 78 of the cable 58 with the pressing lever I6. For this purpose I provide a cable guide 70 suitably secured in any suitable manner as by the bolts 12 to the pressing lever l6 and having the upper'end of said cable 58 fixedly attached to a fixed point 66 on the upper end thereof, in the preferred embodiment by underlying a pin 14 extending over the upper end of the cam groove 16. Said cable guide 10 is provided with the cam groove 16 containing said cable of a curvature such as to provide the desired deflections of the recoil spring means 48 to achieve the desired successive degrees of tension exerted by said spring means throughout the closing and opening strokes of the pressing lever.

It is apparent therefore, that by changes in the location or orientation of the cable guide 10 on the pressing lever and by changes in the shape of the cam groove 76 itself, may be effective leverage exerted by said spring be varied in a predetermined manner. Thus, in the embodiment l0 shown in Figs. 5 and 6, the position of the cable guide 10' is reversed in respect to the cable guide 16 of the embodiment 10 shown in Figs. 1-4,

As stated previously, by providing successive degrees 'of tension throughout the closing and opening strokes of the pressing lever, I am enabled to provide a pressing machine which will automatically have the desirable characteristics of two former distinct types of pressing machines, namely, one which will exert an effective tension of the recoil spring means to provide a 7 small amount of'tension throughout most of the of press opening, namely a sharply increasing tension during the end portion of the closing joined together. In my preferred embodiment shown, said leaf spring 48 has its front end 52 rigidly secured to the front end 54 of thejfoot pedal," to additionally counterbalance the action of the foot pedal, in the specific embodiment shown, by the same bolt 56 employed for joining the leaves 50 of the leaf spring together. I employ a flexible cable 58 for joinin the rear end 60 of said leaf spring to the'pressing lever i 6 in a novel manner to be described. It is apparent however that a coil spring, rubber blocks or other suitable type of spring means maybe employed. Any suitable type of a freely flexible cable such as a wire rope or steel tape 58 may be employed. The means 62 I preferably employ for joining the lower end of said cable 58 to the rear end 66 of said leaf spring 48 may be provided with suitable means 64 to take up any slack that may be present in the cable 58. The upper end of thecable 58 is attached to a fixed point 66 on said pressing lever 16 preferably on the work arm thereof. As means to vary the effective tension exerted by said spring means I preferably employ means to automatically vary the effective leverage exerted stroke and an increased tension during the startingv portion of the openingstroke. This is particularly true of the embodiment IU of myinvention as shown in Figs. 1-4. The embodiment ill of my invention shown inFigs. 5 and 6 is shown to show the. variations possible .in my invention although the device shownin said figures has not the particular desirable characteristics hithertostated. a

I-have shown in. Figs. 7, 8 and 9 diagrammatic representations of spring-lever arm systerns each with'agraph of the relative movement of the spring and the lever arm. Fig. 7 illustrates diagrammatically comparatively the action of typical prior art presses'Fig. 8 illustrates the action of the preferred embodiment ID of my invention shown in Figs. 1-4 and Fig. 9 illustrates the action of the alternative embodiment I 0 of my invention shown in Figs. 5 and: 6. In said figures, I a I h X=deflection of the end 60 of spring 48 (tension).

Y=movement of pressing head lever l6=constant=4.5 per unit '(total 45).-

a=distance between pivot point of lever l8 and point '18 of cable contact (lever arm with press closed). b=distance between pivot point of lever l8 and point 78 of cable contact (lever arm with press open). a/b=measure of totalfulcrum change when it pivots through 45.

2395, 669 Asstated hithertoj-Ivary the effective tension exerted by the spring means by varying its op,- era vje'fpoint of attachment or point of contact 18"with the camgroove Ti -to vary the effective leverage exerted by said. 'springmeanson said pressing lever iii, said effective. leverage comprising the distances between the fixed pivot point it! of. the pressing lever and the point of contact 1810f said cable 58 with. said cam groove 16; in closed, position, being represented by 'the distancesa, a era" and the effectiveleverage exertedby the spring means 48 when in. open position being represented by the distances 1), b and b"., i

' In the prior art with no means to varytnc tension exerted by the spring means, alfixed point. had to be selected as a compr'c'rnisebetween a snappily opening press anda truly'equilibrated presswhich is perfectly counterbalanced for all positions of the head lever. Fig. 7 illustrates diagrammatically the fixed connecting point of such a spring means. In all diagrams it is al parent that y, the movement of thev pressing head lever is a constant and that a the distance between the pivot point 18 of the lever and the pointlB of effective attachment or point of contact T8 of. the cable 58 connecting the spring means to the pressing lever'against the guide 10 in closed 'position is also a constant. By my invention, I haveprovided for the first time, means to vary '3: the deflection of the end oftne spring or tension by varying b the distance or effective leverage between thepivot point 58 of the lever andpoint of cable contact 18 when the press is in an open position and at intermediate points of its strokes. It will be noted that the increased tension to provide the desired snap action is indicated by the distance in Fig. 8 greater than the prior art distance C" shown in Fig. 7 which in turn is greater than the less ened leverage distance C,- and hence tension shown in Fig. 9 and in the embodiment lil' shown in Figs. and 6.

If desired the cam groove 76 may be omitted, and the desired cam surface formed on the guide H1.

I have shown in Figs. 3 and 4 how, in practice, I preferably employ two cable guides one on each side of the work arm of the pressing lever I6, and two cables 58 leading from the cable guides 10 downwards to an adjusting yoke 80 which in turn is adjustably attached to the free end of the spring 48 by meansof the adjusting means 64 comprising the adjusting bolt 82 fitting through suitable holes in the yoke 80 and fork 84 embracing the free rear end of the spring 48.

It is apparent, therefore, that I have provided a novel type of variable tension recoil means for garment pressing machines with the advantages explained above.

,It is understood that my invention is not limited to the specific embodiments shown and that various deviations may be made therefrom without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. In a garment pressing machine, a pressing buck, a pivotally mounted pressing lever of the first class having a pressing head on the work arm thereof, a foot pedal, means actuated by said foot pedal to pivot said pressing lever to close said pressing head into pressing relationship with said buck, leaf recoil spring means having its front end rigidly secured to the front end of said foot pedal, a cable having its lower end atattached to the upper endthereofand a camiface abutting and guiding said cable of. a curvature so constructed and arrangedas to providepredeterminedfdefie'ctionsof. the recoil-spring means to achieve predetermined successive degrees'fof tension throughout the closing and opening strokes ofthe pressing lever.

l 2;. In a garment pressing machine, a pressing buck," a"pivotal1y mounted pressing lever of the first class having apr'essing' head, a foot pedal,

v meansactuated by said foot pedal to pivot said pressing lever to close said pressing head into pressing relationship with said buck, recoil spring meanshaving one end rigidly secured to the said footpedal, a cablehaving its lower end attached, to theiothere'nd of the spring means, a cable,

'3. In a garment pressing'machine, a pressing buck, a pivotally mounted pressing lever .of the first class having a pressing head, a foot pedal, means actuated by said foot pedal to pivot said pressing. lever to close said pressing head into pressing relationship with said buck, leaf recoil spring means having one end. rigidly secured to thesaid foot pedal, a cable having its lower endattached to the other end of the leaf spring means, a cable'guide' rigidly mounted on said pressing lever having said cable fixedly attached thereto and a cam facev abutting and guiding said cablecf a-curvature so constructed and arranged as. to provide predetermined deflections of the recoil spring means to achieve predetermined successive degrees of tension throughout the closing and opening strokes of the pressing lever.

4. In a garment pressing machine, a pressing buck, a pivotally mounted pressing lever 0f the first class having a pressing head, a foot pedal, means actuated by said foot pedal to pivot said pressing lever to close said pressing head into pressing relationship with said buck, recoil spring means having its front end rigidly secured to the front end of said foot pedal, a cable having its lower end attached to the rear end of the spring means, a cable guide rigidly mounted on said pressing lever having said cable fixedly attached thereto and a cam face abutting and guiding said cable of a curvature so constructed and arranged as to provide predetermined deflections of the recoil spring means to achieve predetermined successive degrees of tension throughout the closing and opening strokes of the pressing lever.

5. In a garment pressing machine, a pressing buck, a pivotally mounted pressing lever of the first class having a pressing head on the work arm thereof, a foot pedal, means actuated by said foot pedal to pivot said pressing lever to close said pressing head into pressing relationship with said buck, recoil spring means having one end rigidly secured to the said foot pedal, a cable having its lower end attached to the other end of the spring means, a cable guide rigidly mounted on the power arm of said pressing lever having said cable fixedly attached thereto and a cam face abutting and guiding said cable of a curvature so constructed and arranged as to provide I 3., the; reanend of' the leaf. spring n' eans, c e s id zr i men s i on erqw rm. ofsaid pressing lever ihaving said cable fixedly means to achieve predetermined successive degrees of tension throughout the closing and opening strokes of the pressinglever, L

'6. 'In a garment pressing machine, a pressing buck, a pivotally mounted pressing lever of the first class having a pressing head, means to pivot said pressing lever to close said pressing head into pressing relationship with said buck, recoil spring means operatively connected to said pressing head, and means to automatically vary the efiective leverage exerted by said spring means to vary the efiective tension exerted by said spring most of the closing' stroke with a sharply in-' creasing tension at the'end portion of the closing stroke and with an increased tension at the starting portion of the opening stroke and asmall amount of tension throughout the balance of the opening stroke. r

'8.*Ina garment pressing machine, a pressing buck, a pivotally mounted pressing lever 01' the first class having a pressing head, means to pivot said pressing lever to close said pressing head into pressing relationship with said buck, recoil spring means operatively connected to said pressing head, and means to automatically vary the efiective leverage exerted by said spring means to vary the efiective tension exerted by said spring means to provide a small amount of tension throughout most of the closing stroke and with ascaeoa predetermined deflections of the recoil. spring.

a sharply increasing tension at the end portion of the closing stroke and with a sharplygincreased tension at the starting portion of the opening stroke and a small amount of tension throughout the balance of the opening stroke.

9. In a garment pressing machine, a pressing buck, a pivotally mounted pressing lever of the first class having a pressing head, means to pivot said pressing lever to close said pressing head into pressing relationship with said buck, recoil spring means operatively connected to said pressing head, and means to automatically .vary the efiective tension exerted by said spring means to provide a sharply increasing tension at the end portion of the closing stroke and a sharply increased tension at the starting portion of the opening stroke.

10. In a garment pressing machine, a pressing buck, a pivotally mounted pressing lever of the first class having a pressing head, means to pivot said pressing lever to close said pressing head into pressing relationship with said buck, recoil spring means operatively connected to said pressing head, and means to automatically vary the effective leverage exerted by said spring means to vary the efiective tension exerted by said spring. means to provide a sharply increasing tension at, the end portion of the closing strokeand a sharplyv increased tension at the starting portion of the opening stroke.

11. In a garment pressing machine, a pressing buck, a pivotally mounted pressing lever of the first class having a pressing head, a foot pedal, mean actuated by said foot pedal to pivot said pressing lever to close said pressing headinto pressing relationship with said buck, recoil spring,

means operatively connected to said pressing head and to said foot pedal, and means to automatically vary the effective leverage exerted by said spring means to vary the efiective tension exerted by said spring means.

NICHOLAS MONSARRAT. I 

